I have to say, even being an HRT sceptic, that the livery does look rather good. Will be interesting to see if they are ahead of Virgin or not. Unfortunately I struggle to get more excited about the performance of this car than that.

I hope they focus qualifying simulations so they at least post some good times. Although this will give them no race info, HRT need to focus on beating the 107% rule. Some respectable times might even attract some more sponsorship

probably not a bad move to sponsor HRT. It’s the most innovative and original livery on the grid. Plus it’ll often be at the front of the on track action.. when they’re getting passed. So good exposure if you need to get your name out there.

The nose looks a lot wider than it did in the renderings. I gueass that was developed in the last 2 weeks extra time. What about the rear wing, did they bother fitting a DRS on it, or did they figure they won’t be chasing anyone like that anyhow. I dont see any device for it, maybe they operate it like Mercedes GP from the sides.

About the nose, it could be the livery, but it looks a bit squared and clumsy somehow. Maybe it is just because it seems to really use the maximum width from the tip, and the camera’s are mounted at the furthest forward point of it.

I donβ€™t care thinking how many haters are there, I just love this team. It must be really difficult period for their engineers to build this car with few resources and money. Geoff Willis did great job. Car is really looking good and I would love to see it doing better than Virgin and Lotus.

Nice interview from Alan Baldwin with Kolles. They might get the car at least some running:

“We will do systems checks, we will do the fire-up and then we will see,” added Kolles, who said he had just two hours sleep before flying in from Stuttgart for the launch of the last of the 2011 cars.

HRT might be the only ones being faster than last year. They have no fear of not making the 107%

“The data we have is that the car is better than last year’s…it’s completely aerodynamically modified,” he added. “The others have lost a little bit, we have gained a little bit so let’s see where we are.”

It’s a nice looking car and seems more complex than the MVR. Again, more evidence that a few hours of wind tunnel work is better than all CFD at this stage. If the MVR is anything to go by, CFD appears able to deliver a basic package but the finer details seem beyond the technology at the moment.

I think this car could turn out be a little cracker once they’ve figured it out.

It’s not an assumption, itβ€™s a fact. The rest of the teams don’t stick to wind tunnels for sentimental reasons you know. Geoff Willis has created this car and he knows his way around a wind tunnel alright. It should be very decent in a bottom 3rd of the grid kinda way.

Again, it’s not fact, it’s just your opinion. For all we know, this car could be the fastest thing out there, or it could top out at 140 mph and then the body falls off, we just don’t know!

Oh and actually CFD is the future, it’s cheaper, faster, and you can use it in many more places than the wind tunnel! Mark my words, once the CFD is refined a bit more, the wind tunnel will be rendered completely obsolete.

McLaren have a wind tunnel, excellent designers and such, doesn’t mean they are the fastest does it? One man does not make a team…….